SFPD Officer Shoots, Kills Robbery Suspect in Bayview

A Friday morning robbery on 23rd Street near the Potrero Hill Playground led officers on a multi-neighborhood car chase that ended with one dead.

According to Officer Michael Andraychak from the San Francisco Police Department, the incident took place around 10:30 a.m., when a group in a gold SUV hijacked a California lottery van. The driver of the van was assaulted, and she was transported to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

Suspects driving both van and the SUV fled the scene, and were spotted caravaning together through the neighborhood. When cops gave chase they split up, and SUV was stopped at Ingalls and Gilman streets. All occupants were handcuffed and detained.

Meanwhile, the suspect driving the lottery van eventually stopped at Fitzgerald Avenue and Griffith Street, near the Alice Griffiths housing development. When the suspect exited the van, Andraychak says “an officer-involved shooting occurred.” The victim was transported to the hospital where he was pronounced deceased.

It’s unclear what was in the lottery van, or if the suspect was armed or advancing on the officer at the time of the shooting.

Despite offering little other details to the many reporters asking questions, Andraychak said that SFPD is “as transparent as we can be considering this is an ongoing investigation,” and that “We’ve been moving towards transparency for a long time.”

The officer involved in the shooting was wearing a body worn camera, which has been retrieved and is under review. As is customary, a town hall meeting (usually with hordes of protestors decrying police violence) will be held within 10 days of the incident.

This is the third fatal officer-involved shooting this year in San Francisco. In May, Nicholas Flusche was shot and killed at a Subway on Market Street after stabbing an employee repeatedly. And in September, a domestic violence situation turned fatal when SFPD shot Damian Murray after he allegedly held his wife and two children hostage in their Nob Hill apartment.